Santa Lucia and a minor riddle solved

The 11th and 12th of December bring a delightful treat to the breakfast table, ‘colombine’. Colombine are buns similar in taste to a hot cross bun, having a sort of tear drop shape and covered with sugar drops.

Fortified by a colonbina each we went out for a stroll. Since the weather has turned cooler we have been able to see a range of white hills from our early morning stroll. To be honest it isn’t really an ‘early’ stroll, more of a mid morning stroll really.

Seeing the hills in the distance has caused us to guess where these hills might be. It isn’t easy to estimate distance here as the hills could be low and near or high and far. As we strolled past the very nice Massey Ferguson 35 we decided to have a crack at gathering empirical evidence.

We got into the car and headed up the valley, and found the first blighter opposite Lardaro. The range of hills in the distance was still in the distance so obviously high and far. Instead of carrying on, and missing lunch, we stopped at Bondo and looked at the hills and started a new raft of speculation. There is a WW1 cemetary at Bondo, with a large monument, giving a good vantage point to view the surrounding landscape.

Back at Ponte Caffaro we wandered about the flat doing stuff and waiting for the arrival of Santa Lucia. Santa Lucia doesn’t come to Gravels Bank so this was to be a new experience for us. We set out from home at 5:50 pm and made our way to the five a side football field at the back of the cinema, where people of all ages were starting to gather. The musicians were tuning up, the fire was lit and we waited.

Santa Lucia’s donkey was already present as was her cart, the expectation grew. The children were ringing cowbells to hasten her arrival. Santa Lucia’s arrival, when it camehigh up on the hill, was very dramatic.

All the children gathered around Santa Lucia’s cart and received their presents, as the rest of us warmed ourselves by the fire. We all drifted towards the tent for some brule and a chat and home.

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I think that the shape of the bun is supposed to be of a dove, not a tear drop, especially as colombina means “little dove”.

The World War One cemetery was a cemetery for Austro-Hungarians. The area to the north of us, just into Trentino, was the Italian front in the First World War, and has lots of trenches and other relics up in the mountains.